Week Two--Intellectual and Cognitive Development During the Adult Years

The question of the week in GMIT 650 is, "Does general intelligence increase, decrease, or remain stable over the life span, or do some aspects of intelligence increase while others decline?" I'm an "outline kind of guy" so I'd like to start with a schematic, if you will, of how I saw this week:

I. Chapter 2 (Intellectual and Cognitive Developement During the Adult Years) reading from text Learning and Change in the Adult Years with highlights from the chapter:

• The relationship between aging and intelligence is problematic, principally because the concept of intelligence itself is so problematic.
• Intelligence test scores improve with education.
• Intelligence does decline with chronological age, but the decrease does not begin until relatively late in life.
• Where decline is found, it can normally be reversed through training.
• Fluid intelligence: information-processing capacity.
• Crystallized intelligence: experience and acculturation.
• Intellectual functioning remains relatively stable with age, but crystallized intelligence assumes a more prominent role as a component of intellectual functioning.
• There are shortcomings of using standardized tests to measure the intelligence construct outside Western school-based culture.
• Two important challenges to the validity of intelligence tests: 1) they are too culture-specific; 2) they are constructed from problems and tasks derived from the context or "culture" of schooling rather than everyday life.
• Practical intelligence is strongly correlated with the ability to form relationships and social networks.
• There is a need to distinguish between intelligence as an abstract, context-free capacity, and intelligence as the application of capacity in everyday life.
• Contextually intelligent behavior involves the ability to adapt to the environment, select a better environment, or shape the given environment so that it affords a better fit with one's skills, interests, and values.
• Mature adult congition is characterized by the ability to fit abstract thinking into the concrete limitations of everyday life.
• Intellectual and cognitive growth occurs in the adult years and is based on the experience of dealing with concrete problems and situations at work, in the home, and in community life.
• The ability to recognize and anticipate problems before they strike is a key skill in the world of work, allowing the development of contingency plans.
• Intelligence tests typically have a single correct or best answer; in everyday life, the solution must often be found among several possibilities.
• Problems on tests are typically decontextualized, whereas everyday problems are contextualized, where all the operating variables have been taken into account when approaching the solution.
• Feedback from test problems is usually unambiguous; by contrast, everyday life rarely provides explicit feedback on performance.
• Test problems are usually solved alone; everyday problems must often be solved in conjuction with other people.

II. Fellow cohort, Doug Brtek led a student-directed seminar on this week's topic--here are a couple of questions he proposed and my overall view of how the discussions went and the main consensus:

Question #1
Refer to table 2.2 on page 23 of your text and review the information.
Now, think about the format in which you give your students tests and compare it with the information in the table. (If you give test in a multitude of different formats, then consider the one you use the most.) Based on the information in the text, do you agree with the strength-weakness assessment? Based on the grades your students receive, do you agree with differences in percentages listed on the chart? If there is significant difference in your results compared to the table? Do you need to consider alternative test methods? Why or why not? (Please remember to take into account the age of your students.)

The discussion was pretty extensive in this area, and the consensus was that the table reflected the commentary from the text that commonly used intelligence tests don't lend themselves well to mature decision-making and problem-solving. As far as personal experiences from cohorts, there was a variety of testing formats that were shared, with most containing objective quetions relating to the career fields of each.

Question #2
The text referred to a number of problem solving methods. Is there a particular method or methods you have used as a student/teacher that has been successful for you? Please explain your process.

There was a lot of good sharing here, also in the problem solving area. The main focus was critical thinking and interactive learning, and how that was being attemped, as well as the need to improve both!

Doug also provided us with some great websites relevant to this week's topic and there was very lively discussion and participation!

III. In response to the reflection questions on the seminar provided in "Participating in Seminars" document provided by our instructor:

I felt very engaged by good resources and questions provided by Doug. I felt he did a masterful job of leading the seminar and keeping it going with good responses!

I learned a lot about the this week's topic; after being encouraged to look for good resources online, I supplied some good information on the issue of cultural bias and standardized testing.

I feel the need to investigate this issue even further; cultural diversity is a big factor in college education, and there is a continuing need to address the gap that exists between cultures and education in this country.

After I was encouraged to seek resources that supported the ideas from the main topic I felt that I was then participating at a level expected from a graduate student. At first, I was somewhat intimidated by the volume of information to be covered, but as is the case in all levels of learning, I stepped it up and felt that I went to a higher level of performance.

I do feel that my participation in the seminar helped lead to a better experience for everyone involved. My questions led to good comments from others, and others comments helped me to continue to try to grasp and understand the material presented and think critically about how it affects me now in my career, and how it will continue to do so!

The seminar format worked very well as an educational method for this topic. It was a very rich experience, and I think it will continue to get even better!